Day 1: Butterflying the Granada region

We’ll meet at Málaga airport and then, time permitting, head towards the Sierra de Huétor Natural Park for our excursion, a short distance from Granada city. This forested limestone massif holds nice populations of Iberian Marbled White, Gatekeeper and Great Banded Grayling. We will visit several parts of this protected area including a botanical garden where will be looking for False Ilex Hairstreak and Cardinal Fritillary, among many others. We’ll reach our first base for the tour in Pinos Genil by late afternoon. Weather allowing, we will enjoy our evening meal outdoors and discuss our plans and aspirations for the coming week.

Days 2 & 3: The higher Sierra Nevada

Over these two days, we will visit some very productive butterfly spots in the higher part of Sierra Nevada National Park. We’ll be looking for endemic butterflies and flora while enjoying breath-taking and vast mountain scenery! Among the butterflies, there will be good chances to find Nevada Blue, Nevada Meadow Fritillary, Purple-shot Copper, Silver-studded Blue, Escher’s Blue, Rock Grayling and Spanish Brassy Ringlet, among others.

Day 4: Genil river and botanical garden

This has the potential to be a very productive day in terms of the number of butterfly species we might see. We’ll start the day by visiting a spot on the banks of the Genil river for Spanish Purple Hairstreak and Spanish Gatekeeper. A visit to the Hoya de Pedraza botanical garden later should produce a nice number of species, including a few Fritillaries, Skippers and Blues. Among them we’ll have some chances to find Queen-of-Spain Fritillary, Cleopatra and Cardinal. The garden holds an interesting array of endemic and threatened flora of the Sierra Nevada, and we’ll have chances to find Nemoptera bipennis, a beautiful Spoonwinged Lacewing endemic to the Iberian Peninsula.

Day 5: Butterflies at the coast

Today we will move to our second base for the trip. Before this though, we will travel to the coastal areas of the Granada and Almería provinces on the lookout for rare species that only occur here within Europe. The main targets of the day are Common Tiger Blue and Desert Orange Tip, but there will be a few other possible sightings such as African Grass Blue, as the habitats are completely different to those previously visited. We may find time to visit a site known for Monarchs, and although less likely, Two-tailed Pasha too.

We will head to our second base in Capileira in the late afternoon.

Days 6 & 7: The other Sierra Nevada

During these final two days we’ll be visiting sites chosen at the discretion of your guides, depending on the season and species seen to date. We may be able to find species that had been missed earlier in the week but we plan to be joined for at least one of the days by another local butterfly expert, Miguel Olvera, who will delight us with his deep local knowledge, gained from many years of studying these mountains.

Additionally, we’ll visit several butterfly locations in the Alpujarras region on the southern side of Sierra Nevada. One particular star species we will have in our sights is the Andalusian Anomalous Blue. We should also be able to set up an overnight moth trap on one or both of these days too, which we’ll open and review in the morning over breakfast.

Day 8: Departure

After a relaxed breakfast at our hotel, we’ll head back to Málaga for departure. On our way, if time permits, we will make a last brief stop for butterflies, which may include sightings of Monarchs.

New holiday so testimonials will follow later

New holiday so reports will follow later